A Barrel of Whiskey - (An Urban Fantasy Whiskey Witches Novel) (20 page)

Leslie stormed back out of his room. “I’m going to grab my husband. We have a lot to talk about.”

Paige didn’t want to be a fly on that wall. She walked down to Mandy’s room and poked her head in. “Lee?”

They’d set up a make-shift cot in Mandy’s very girly, purple and blue room. Leah sat on the bed, though, a book propped up on her knees. She looked up. “Yeah?”

“You okay?”

She nodded.

“Hungry?”

She shook her head.

“I don’t know what’s for dinner, but we’ll probably get it started soon.”

She shook her head again.

“Okay. Well, we’ll let you know when it’s dinner time.”

“’Kay.”

“And, hey.”

Leah looked back up from her book.

“Are we okay?”

The girl dropped her eyes back to her to book without changing her expression.

Blessed Mother, this was why people said the devil was in teenagers. And Leah wasn’t a teenager yet. Bloody hell.

Dexx was in the dining room, scanning the pages of Paige’s books. “Oh, hey. These are interesting!”

“You can read them?”

“Hell yes, I can.”

Paige tipped her head to the side. “No one else can, so how can you?”

Dexx quirked his lips at her. “Right here. It says that if you’ve killed a demon, you’ve earned the right to read these words. See?”

Paige took his word for it and sat down.

“Groceries are put away.”

“Excellent.” She didn’t even want to think about unpacking all the things they’d bought at the store. She was exhausted just thinking of it.

“What’s for dinner?”

“Frozen pizzas.”

“Good. I’ll get the oven started.”

Paige let him and opened a book, starting at the beginning. In most of them, there were inscriptions, notes, prayers, cautions.

Dexx regained his seat. “Look at this. The Whiskey line.”

“Hmm.” Paige looked at it. Whiskeys with various spellings of the name all the way back to the early sixteenth century. “Is Leah on it?”

“Yeah. You are, too.”

Paige pulled the book toward her. It looked like a big, old family Bible. Above her name was Rachel Whiskey and Edwin Blackman. She narrowed her eyes. She’d never even had a name before. But there was Leslie’s father’s name. Jeffery Gossam. And Nick’s father. Wolf Marrs.

Who was Edwin Blackman? And why hadn’t Alma even talked about their fathers?

Interesting. She pushed the book back toward him. “That’s cool. Anything neat in the book itself?”

“No.” Dexx shook his head. “It’s actually quite dull. There’s just some really old spells. There’s dried flowers pressed into the pages. You know. Boring shit.”

Paige smiled at him and rested her head on her hand, thumbing through the book in front of her.

“What are you looking for?”

“I don’t know.” She had eight books in front of her. Those were eight books more than she’d ever had before. Before her memories had been banished, she’d been doing this job without any research resources. But now, with the help of these books, she hoped to—

To what? To do better? To save more lives? To get a better handle on the demon population? To find Heather’s killer? The list was too broad. Too encompassing.

Dexx pulled the corners of his mouth down and nodded. “Got it.”

She had no idea what he got. “You can read minds now?”

“Yours? Yes. I don’t need Kamden’s gift.”

“Hmm.”

He pushed the grimoire with the family tree away from him, still open, and dragged another tome closer to him. “Also, I know you and Leslie talked about you having sex with me when you were out.”

“How—” She bit off her question, her face flaming red.

Dexx grinned as the oven beeped, letting him know it was heated. He stood. “Three meat?”

“Sure.” She didn’t know how he did that, but it was kind of annoying. “You’re creepy. You know that?”

“Yeah. I know.”

“How
do
you know?”

“Well, I didn’t.”

Gah!

“But you smelled different when you came home and when you looked at me, I could smell your heat.”

“Smell my heat?”

“I can tell when you’re turned on and I don’t have to look at your pupils.” He grinned over his shoulder, popping the pizza into the oven. He walked back to the table.

“That’s gross.”

“You should smell the other shit I smell, then we can discuss gross. You smell great.”

Paige rolled her eyes. “We’re still not having sex tonight.”

“Oh, good.” Dexx rubbed his eyebrow, reading. “I wasn’t gonna have any of it tonight anyway. I’m not a meat stick that you can just take a bite out of whenever it’s convenient for you.”

There was no way to respond to that.

“What about this?” Dexx shifted the book closer to her. “This thing can shift shape.”

“Found that one. I don’t think it’s what we’re after, if you’re looking for Heather’s killer.”

“Why?”

“Time. It doesn’t mention anything about time.”

“Why are we even looking in these books?” Dexx asked. “Social worker said it was angels.”

“She said she thought they were behind it. But it’s largely because we don’t have angel textbooks.” Paige was desperate. She had no way of knowing if she would find any answers or not, but she had to try. She had to. “Also, demons aren’t angels, but there are a few angels that are demons.”

“Hmm.” Dexx flipped the page.

“I smell pizza,” Alma said, walking into the kitchen.

“Tombstones,” Dexx said.

Alma turned around and walked back out of the kitchen. “I’ll make something else later.”

Dexx shrugged. “Her loss.”

“Fast has its advantages,” Paige offered, skimming over the text of the book in front of her. Djinn. Nasty assholes in the demon world. “Taste isn’t one of them. Okay.” She sat up straighter. “Get this. Shifts shape.”

“How many do that? Like, all of them?”

Paige shook her head. “Nearly. This one is capable of creating a time warp.”

“What is it?”

“Djinn.”

“Weren’t we just talking about that? Like, yesterday?”

Paige nodded. “Gomez. Druid.”

“What’s the likelihood?”

“Good?”

“Feels like coincidence.”

“Meh.” It did a little. “Okay. But, question: If the angels were after Bobby to kill him, why would they hire a djinn?”

“Unless the angels aren’t the only ones after Bobby?”

Paige gave Dexx her full attention.

“What if the whole reason angels are trying to kill prophets is so they don’t end up in the hands of the demons?”

“Why? We have psychics. They can tell the future. What’s so special about prophets?”

“Sometimes, it’s like you’ve never actually read the Bible, Pea.” Dexx leaned his elbows on the table. “Prophets speak to God. They get visions from God. They’re not just seeing the future. They’re seeing what God wants them to see to drive the future He wants, or what God wants to prevent.”

“Seriously.”

“I thought you were a better pagan than this.” Dexx mock-frowned at her. “I’m disappointed. Yeah. So, yeah. Demons after a prophet? After an ear of God? I could see it.”

“But why wouldn’t the social worker know that? She’s an angel.”

“You think all angels are built the same or that they know all?”

Paige shrugged. She really hadn’t thought about it.

“They’re probably a lot like humans.” Dexx ducked his head, widening his hands. “In that they have some that are quicker on their feet than others, you know.”

“Hmm.” She ran her fingers over the pages that gave her more information on djinn than she’d ever had before. “I’ll call Henry in the morning and let him know.”

“Does it say how to track it?”

“You don’t. The thing can form in any innocuous shape. It could be a picture, a ball, a dog, a cockroach.”

“Oh. Crap.”

“Could be that, too. Imagine being able to be anything. There’s no limit to how he left or where he’s going.”

“Would you be able to track him?”

“Maybe. He is a demon, but I can’t draw any attention to us.”

“You’re really going to let Heather’s killer go free?”

“If it means keeping Bobby and my family safe, then, yes. Now, if he somehow does find us, I’m pretty sure I can protect us.”

“Well, that’s good.”

“Djinn aren’t like normal demons, though. They’re not fallen angels. They don’t live in Hell. There were born here, but this is their plane. They have no pull to the Gate.”

“And that means?”

“That I can’t deal with them the same way I can a normal demon.”

“Normal demon,” Dexx scoffed. The oven dinged. “Well, normal demon slayer, dinner is served.”

T
he next morning, Paige woke up ridiculously early. The sun hadn’t even risen. She checked on Mandy and Leah. They were still in bed. She even checked to make sure the blob on Leah’s cot was actually Leah. She didn’t want to have to go looking for the girl right before the hearing. The whole lynch pin to her case was that she had physical custody of her.

That wasn’t the only thing Paige had going for her, but it was the best. She couldn’t concentrate. For that matter, she couldn’t focus long enough to get Bobby’s bottle ready.

“Here,” Dexx said, finally. He put his hands on Paige’s shoulders and moved her out of the way. “Let me do this. You just sit down. Get Bobby ready and I’ll get the bottle to you.”

Too many emotions ran through her, like a freight train all thought. This was the moment she’d been waiting for.

What if she fucked it up?

What if she forgot something?

Well, what the fuck did she need that she might forget? She needed to go grab it and put it in her bag.

Her bag. What bag was she going to take? If she took the computer bag, wouldn’t that make her look too professional? Too career focused? That was a bad thing when it came to mothers and their children. No. She needed to show the judge that she was a worthy mother, one capable of loving her child.

Fuck that shit. She had to show that she was an adult. She could maintain a job.

Shit. She’d just been fired. She didn’t
have
a job.

Oh, goddess. What was she doing? They had to stall. She needed more time. To get settled. To get a job.

She couldn’t get a job in Portland. Not now. She had to wait. What if the courts thought she was flight risk? What if the courts decided she had to stay?

They hadn’t made Rachel stay. Her home had been in New York.

But that hadn’t been real that time. This time, it would be. As far as Paige knew, there wouldn’t be any angels in play. Rachel wouldn’t have had time.

Or would she? Would Michael come when she called?

Rachel wasn’t an angel summoner. She was an angel whisperer. She could hear the angels. She couldn’t make them come when
she
wanted them to.

Okay. So, should Paige summon some demons? Balnore, maybe?

Dear, gods, it was tempting. She was panicking. She needed someone there who would keep her feet on the ground. She was a homicide detective, for fucks sake. She should be able to keep her shit together.

Except that she’d lost this fight already and she’d put the same feet forward then as she was this time. She was a good mother, a caregiver, a provider. She was solid, steady. And she’d still lost.

Warmth filled her arms.

Paige blinked and the dining room filled her line of vision. Leslie smiled, her eyes turned down with emotion. Could have been worry, pity, concern. Paige couldn’t tell, but she appreciated it anyway. The last time she’d gone through this, Leslie had been afraid, too, trying to protect her own children because Rachel had threatened to take them away, too. Alma had looked at her with accusation for “bringing this on herself” because she was the demon summoner.

Looking around the table, she saw none of that this time. So, maybe all she really needed was the support of her family.

Dexx took her right hand and shoved the bottle into it, saying something.

Paige must be going into shock. She’d turned off her sight. She could barely hear. She was freaking out. She had to get herself under control.

A growl rumbled in her right ear. Dexx took her shoulders and whispered, “You can do this, Pea. We’ve got your back. You will win.”

She bit her lips, fighting back the tears of frustrated hopelessness.

But then she had to think. What happened if she did win custody of Leah?

The girl sat at the table, eating her bowl of cereal and reading her book. Had anyone even told her what was going on?

Probably not. Why? Because in this house, Paige was Leah’s mother. If anyone had told Leah of today’s hearing, it should have been Paige.

Dear gods. She really did suck at this. Maybe Rachel was right. Maybe she really wasn’t up for this. Maybe she would suck at this. What was she doing? She was trying to get Leah and she had a new baby and she couldn’t even make it as a decent human being!

Oh, for the love of rocks, shut it! Paige stared down at Bobby’s face as he suckled on the bottle. She didn’t suck as a human being. She just wasn’t incredibly awesome at it yet. She still had a lot to learn, a lot of work to do. She needed to spend time with Bobby. Get to know him. Yeah. He was a baby, but he was in those blessed moments when he was developing his personality, becoming something other than a giant parasite that had sprouted from his mother’s body.